Design First Office Action Pendency
Design First Office Action pendency is the average number of months from the design application filing date to the date a First Office Action is mailed by the USPTO. The term "pendency" refers to the fact that the application is pending or awaiting a decision. This measure of Design First Office Action Pendency includes the time until a first action by the USPTO, as well as any time awaiting a reply from an applicant to submit all parts of their application. The design first action pendency number displayed, measured in months, is the average for all applications that have a First Office Action mailed over a three-month (one quarter) period.
Design Traditional Total Pendency
This is the measure of design total pendency, as traditionally measured. Historically, pendency has been measured as the average number of months from the design application filing date to the date the application has reached final disposition (e.g., issued as a patent or abandoned) which is called a “disposal”. This pendency includes the time periods awaiting action by the USPTO, as well as any time awaiting reply from an applicant.
The Design Traditional Total Pendency pendency number displayed, measured in months, is the average for all applications--excluding applications in which a CPA has been filed--which are “disposed” over a three-month period.
Design Unexamined Application Inventory
The unexamined patent application inventory is the number of new Design applications in the pipeline at any given time which are awaiting a First Office Action by the patent examiner. Hague, continuation, continuation-in-part, and divisional applications are included in the total.
Application filings are Design filings, or the incoming patent application workload. The bar chart reflects the cumulative number of application filings this fiscal year in each of the preceding three months. Continuation, continuation-in-part, divisional, and Continued Prosecution Application (CPA) applications are included in the total.
Note: FY 2023 filings are preliminary and will be finalized in November 2023.
Effective October FY21, Hague applications are included in the Unexamined Inventory totals.
Monthly International Design Applications Received by the USPTO
The chart shows the number of international design applications under the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement which have been received by the USPTO as a designated Contracting Party and in its capacity as an Office of indirect filing.
Design Application Production Units
Design application production units are a measure of the design examination work completed by the USPTO. A production unit effectively represents the complete examination of a single application. The production units are the total first office actions plus the total disposals completed, divided by two. The number of production units displayed are the actual number of units completed in the current fiscal year.
Design Allowance Rate
Allowed design applications are applications that have been examined by USPTO design examiners and determined to be eligible for a design patent. The allowance rate, or percent allowed, is calculated by dividing the number of design applications allowed by the number of design applications disposed in the current fiscal year. The allowance rate includes the abandonments for requests for continued prosecution application (CPAs) in the disposals.
Rocket Docket Pendency from Grant of Request for Expedited Examination to First Action
Rocket Docket offers design applicants an expedited path to examination. Rocket Docket affords the applicant rapid design patent protection that may be especially important where marketplace conditions are such that new designs on articles are typically in vogue for limited periods of time. All processing is expedited--including appeals--from the date the request is granted.
Rocket Docket Pendency from of Grant of "Request for Expedited Examination" to first action is the average number of months from the date the Rocket Docket Request is granted to the date a first action is mailed by the USPTO.
The number displayed is the average for all Rocket Docket applications that have received a first action during the current fiscal year.